Jan 17, 2011 0
My data and I
I have data all over the place and I generate data on a daily basis. I’m fascinated and scared of my data that is out there in the world.
For the past few years, I have been playing close attention to anything that is related to visualizing data. I’ve come across various terms such as quantified self, lifestreaming, personal data logging, etc.
Regardless of the differences in terminology, I found that each term had a core meaning, which is keeping track of your data and then doing something with it.
I often browse through the many applications/websites that are available to keep track of my data. But I can never jump the hurdle of actually doing it. Why? Privacy. Data portability. I saw on my Google menu there was a tab for Health. Do I really want Google having that information? And what about that whole Delicious bookmarking scare? Everyone (including me) were freaking out because we didn’t know what other app or what to do with our bookmarks if Delicious got shut down.
There are people who could benefit from my data.
Seriously, think about it.
Facebook and Twitter alone carries a lot of information. Imagine if someone wrote a program to log all status/tweets when people are sick. Correlate that data with the weather and reported illnesses from hospitals and doctors. Then cross reference with major events that have happened in the past year. (This is what some will call “Data Mining“).
Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
As I ponder this more and more, I see where the future is heading with this type of personal data logging. There will be more applications in regards to your health. Advertisers, healthcare, and researchers are going to be using this data. Privacy and data portability will still be a relevalent issue and will be of utmost concern.
So what to do?